The commercial relations between Venice and Florence in the second half of the 14th and the first half of the 15th century especially concerning slave trade, can best be examined through notary files; correspondence, commercial registries and the Florentine catasti are considered to give too little details about the slaves and their traders.

The authors reach the conclusion that for the years 1366-69 25 to 38% of the slaves in Florence came from Venice (the rest from Genoa, Naples, etc.). Florentine merchants bought slaves or let them buy in Venice, but there were also specialised Venetian slave traders who sold slaves from Venice in Florence. The dominant origin of these slaves was Tatar.

Although Florentine slave traders can be found, e.g. in Lisbon, their slaves seldom reached the city of Florence and sometimes Florentine merchants appear as “habitants of Venice”.

As several merchants wrote their contracts themselves, in excellent Latin, the authors ask the question whether this can be considered as a new category of “marchands-écrivains”.